Pre-translation testing of bi-directional language display

ABSTRACT

A method for testing the display of bi-directional language script prior to translation in an application under test can include using unidirectional glyphs with shaping indicators to simulate right-to-left characters. The using step can include reversing an ordering of a first set of unidirectional text characters in an input string and mapping the unidirectional text characters to right-to-left code points in a bi-directional language code page to produce a pseudo-translated string. Multiple unidirectional language glyphs can be loaded where each corresponds to a same one of the right-to-left character code points as had been used to produce the pseudo-translation. The pseudo-translation and the glyphs can be combined to simulate right-to-left character rendering in the application under test such the resultant output is visually similar to the input string. Finally, the glyphs can include character shaping indicia such that a resultant output allows for the detection of shaping errors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Statement of the Technical Field

The present invention relates to the internationalization of computersoftware, and more particularly, to testing bi-directional characterdisplay in an application under test.

2. Description of the Related Art

Internationalizing computer software can be difficult and expensive.Yet, the internationalization of computer software can be critical toensure the global success of computer software. In this regard, it hasbeen estimated that worldwide business-to-business e-commerce will havegrown to $30 billion by the early 21st century, while at the same timenon-English speakers will constitute more than 50 percent of the world'sonline population. With more than half of the world's Internet userspredicted to be non-native English speakers in the near future, goingglobal is not merely a business advantage in the 21st century; it is abusiness imperative.

In the past, the process of accommodating a specific country's language,conventions, and culture was done on a more or less ad hocbasis—essentially retrofitting software to accommodate a particularlocale. Merely separating the text in a user interface from one'sprogram is not an acceptable solution, however. Even after translatingsoftware prompts, help messages, and other textual information to thetarget languages, one still has to address basic issues of displayingand printing characters in the target language. Challenges can arise,however, in handling languages which incorporate bi-directional script.

Bi-directional language scripts refer to text which is written fromright to left, and left to right, and may also incorporate embeddednumbers or segments of text in Western scripts. Bidirectional scriptsgenerally can be found in languages spoken by more than half a billionpeople in the Middle East, Central and South Asia and in Africa.Prominent among these languages are Arabic, Persian (Farsi), Hebrew, andYiddish to name a few. Notably, languages that utilize Arabic scriptalso include special ligature, diacritic and shaping features which adda level of complexity in the display and printing of the languages thatdo not apply to other European and Asian languages.

Unlike many other unidirectional languages, bi-directional Arabic textis cursive and characters are generally connected one to another so thatthey appear hand written, even when printed. In this regard, shaperefers to the way a character is positioned relative to preceding andfollowing characters. For instance, in the Arabic language, dependingupon syntax, scripts can contain from one to four shapes for eachcharacter or ligature. The possible shapes for the Arabic character caninclude (1) Isolated: the character is not linked to either thepreceding or the following character; (2) Final: the character is linkedto the preceding character but not to the following one; (3) Initial:the character is linked to the following character but not to thepreceding one; and (4) Middle: the character is linked to both thepreceding and following characters. In a text string, the shaping rulesthat govern a character, its neighbors, and its position within a worddetermine its presentation shape.

As more companies deploy software products worldwide, software testingmust change to verify software products developed for deployment innon-English environments. In order to test the translatability of aproduct, use is sometimes made of pseudo translations as described inU.S. Pat. No. 6,453,462 to Meade et al. Such pseudo translations howeverdo not allow non-speakers of a bi-directional language to be able totest the special bi-directional script handling abilities of the productunder test because the pseudo translation text is either static or notdisplayed in a true bidirectional environment which is needed to testthe script handling.

A true test of bi-directional text handling requires actualbi-directional language data because bi-directional languages ofteninclude special forms of many characters as well as justificationspacers known in the Arabic language as “kashidas”. Existing techniquesrequire non Arabic-literate testers to memorize the appearance of astandard bi-directional language text segment or compare actual textoutput with images of the identical text that is known to have beenrendered correctly. The drawback of this approach is that it is verytime consuming and the testers may not be able to detect text in thebi-directional language that is not quite correct and therefore notdetect real defects. The standard text may not fit well into the userinterface requiring additional standard test strings to be used.Accordingly, to detect errors in placement of a bi-directional scriptsuch as Arabic can require of the tester intense language skills notnormally possessed by test staff. Of course, to do so can be expensiveand restrictive as it often means that the most technically qualifiedstaff may not possess the language proficiency necessary to properlytest the application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses the deficiencies of the art in respectto testing bi-directional language script and provides a novel andnon-obvious method, system and apparatus for testing the display ofbi-directional language script prior to translation in an applicationunder test. In a particular aspect of the invention, a system fortesting the display of bi-directional language script prior totranslation in an application under test can include a unidirectional toright-to-left character code point mapping. Each unidirectionalcharacter in the mapping can have a corresponding right-to-leftcharacter code.

The system further can include a pseudo-translator configured to producea pseudo-translation by reversing characters of an input string andmapping the reversed characters to right-to-left character code pointsaccording to the code point mapping. Importantly, a multiplicity ofunidirectional language glyphs can be included. Each of the glyphs cancorrespond to a same one of the right-to-left character code points ashad been used by the pseudo-translator to produce thepseudo-translation. In this way, a combination of the pseudo-translationand the glyphs when rendered by an application under test can simulateright-to-left character rendering in the application under test suchthat a resultant output is visually similar to the input string.

A method for testing the display of bi-directional language script priorto translation in an application under test can include usingunidirectional glyphs with shaping indicators to simulate right-to-leftcharacters. In particular, the method can include reversing an orderingof a first set of unidirectional text characters in an input string andmapping the unidirectional text characters to right-to-left code pointsin a bi-directional language code page to produce a pseudo-translatedstring. A multiplicity of unidirectional language glyphs can be loadedwhere each of the glyphs corresponds to a same one of the right-to-leftcharacter code points as had been used to produce thepseudo-translation. Finally, the pseudo-translation and the glyphs canbe combined to simulate right-to-left character rendering in anapplication under test such that a resultant output is visually similarto the input string.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspectsof the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elementsand combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It isto be understood that both the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only andare not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred,it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theprecise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a system for testing the displayof bi-directional language script prior to translation in an applicationunder test;

FIG. 2A is a pictorial illustration of a set of glyphs rendered withcorresponding shaping indicia in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a pictorial illustration of a process for forming a pseudotranslation and the rendering of the pseudo translation using a mappedfont that includes shaping indicia;

FIG. 2C is a pictorial illustration of a process of rendering of apseudo translation using a mapped font that includes shaping indicia andaccounting for the insertion of justification spacers; and,

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for rendering apre-translation testing of the display of bi-directional language scriptusing mapped shaping indicia.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is a method, system and apparatus for testing thedisplay of bi-directional language script prior to translation in anapplication under test. In accordance with the present invention, afirst set of unidirectional text characters in an input script can bereversed in order and mapped to code points in the bi-directionallanguage code page producing a pseudo translation. A set ofunidirectional glyphs can be associated with each right-to-leftcharacter code point to which a same unidirectional character wasmapped. In addition, each glyph can have shaping indicia such that whenrendered by the product under test, the shaping of the right-to-leftcharacter code point is evident.

It will be recognized by the skilled artisan that by producing either apseudo-translation for text that appears in a user interface, or bymodifying test data in the same fashion, an environment can be producedin which the storage of the text utilizes bi-directional language codepoints. As a result, normal text handling can be performed for thebi-directional language, for example right to left text direction,character shaping and the insertion of justification spacers. Theresultant display further can be recognized by a tester who can readtext based upon the unidirectional language even if the tester cannotread the bi-directional language.

It is an advantage of the present invention that no specialbi-directional language reading skills are needed by the tester. Assuch, test staff resources can be applied with greater flexibility andstaffing costs can be reduced. Yet, the software under test still canperform all of the required bi-directional language text renderingallowing a high level of confidence in the test effort and hence thestability of the code after translation. Moreover, specialbi-directional language test strings need not be memorized and test dataformed using the unidirectional language can be used whilst stillretaining the ability of the tester to detect corruption. Finally, theshaping of characters in the bi-directional language can be determinedto be correct by inspecting the character shaping indicia present ineach glyph and the insertion of justification spacers will not preventthe confirmation of shaping behavior.

In further illustration of the foregoing inventive arrangements, FIG. 1is a schematic illustration of a system for testing the display ofbi-directional language script prior to translation in an applicationunder test 140. The system can include a code point mapping 150 coupledto text reversal and mapping logic 120. The code point mapping 150 canbe used to map the original unidirectional text characters 110 toright-to-left language code points 130. The code point mapping 150 canbe fundamentally arbitrary as the translation process is merely apseudo-translation process to occur prior to any actual translation fromthe unidirectional language to the bi-directional language. An exemplarymapping of Latin script to Arabic script can include:

U+0025 => U+066A (Percent) U+002C => U+060C (Comma) U+0030 throughU+0039 => U+0660 through U+0669 (0–9) U+003B => U+061B (Semicolon)U+003F => U+061F (Question mark) U+0041 through U+005A => U+0621 throughU+063A (A–Z) U+0061 through U+006A => U+0641 through U+064A (a–j) U+006Bthrough U+0070 => U+0671 through U+0676 (k–p) U+0071 through U+007A =>U+0681 through U+068A (q–z)Notably, in the exemplary case, no Latin character is be mapped to thecode point U+0640 which is the “tatweel” or “kashida” which can beinserted by the rendering software as needed.

The system also includes a glyph mapping 160 manifested as a font 180.The glyph mapping 160 can include a set of unidirectional language basedglyphs associated with corresponding right-to-left code points. Themapping for the glyph mapping 160 must be the same mapping as that ofthe code point mapping 150. In this way, when a mapped bi-directionalstring 170 is rendered using the font 180, the visual appearance of theoutput 190 will appear legible to one who understands only theunidirectional language because the right-to-left ordering of the mappedglyphs will correspond to the reversal of the unidirectional input text110. In addition to the mirroring of the mapping of code point mapping150, the font 180 also can include a glyph for the kashida character.Advantageously, the font 180 can accommodate screen and or printrendering.

Notably, some letters in a bi-directional language such as Arabic canhave multiple glyphs, depending on whether the letter is isolated,initial, middle or final. Consequently, in addition to reversing themapping for the glyphs, a shaping indicator can be added to each glyph.The shaping indicia can include an additional overbar or underscorewhich indicates to the tester that the glyphs are representative ofright-to-left codepoints as well as the shaping for the bi-directionaltext.

In a preferred aspect of the invention, the indicia can be marked todenote the four forms as shown in FIG. 2A. Specifically, the four formscan include “isolated”, “initial”, “middle” and “final” corresponding tothe shaping possibilities in the Arabic language. By reference to theshaping indicia, the tester will recognize a proper shaping for theright-to-left characters in the pseudo-translation, even though thetester may not understand the bi-directional language of the characters.

In more specific illustration, FIG. 2B is a pictorial illustration of aprocess for forming a pre-translation rendering of unidirectionallanguage script using mapped shaping indicia. Initially, the initialtext having unidirectional language based characters can be reversed inorder and mapped to left-to-right language code points. Each characterof the mapped bi-directional language code points can be further mappedto a corresponding shape indicia and also a unidirectional glyph.Finally, both the unidirectional glyph and the shape indicia can berendered to produce a pseudo-translation of the bi-directional languageequivalent to the unidirectional input text which will be understood byone who cannot understand the bi-directional language.

It will be recognized by the skilled artisan that a tester viewing therendering of the unidirectional glyphs in combination with the shapingindicia can detect improper shaping errors based upon an understandingof the symbology of the shaping indicia and not the bi-directionallanguage. Moreover, detecting these types of errors do not require aknowledge of the bi-directional language or its character shaping.Consequently, testing personnel can be assigned the testing task basedprincipally upon technical proficiency and not language proficiency.

It is an advantage of the present invention that the use ofjustification spacers such as Arabic kashidas can be accommodated. Inthis regard, FIG. 2C is a pictorial illustration of a process forforming a pre-translation rendering of bi-directional language scriptusing mapped shaping indicia and accounting for the insertion ofjustification spacers. In particular, the shape indication ofjustification spacers can be made such that there is a small space inthe indicator bar or a small vertical line if it is desired to be ableto detect if justification spacers have been inserted. It will beunderstood, though, that the form of the indicator is however notlimited to the illustrated examples.

In summary, FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for renderinga pre-translation display of bi-directional language script using mappedshaping indicia. Beginning in block 310, unidirectional text can beloaded for processing and the characters of the unidirectional text canbe reversed in block 320. In block 330, each of the characters can bemapped to a right-to-left code point in a bi-directional language thusproducing a pseudo translation 340 for a bi-directional language. Inblock 350, the application under test, applies its rendering logic tothe pseudo translation in the normal manner. Finally, in block 360 theoutput of the application under test is displayed using the special fontthat contains unidirectional glyphs in right-to-left code pointpositions as well as shaping indicators for each of the four possibleshapes Finally, in block 370, the unidirectional glyphs and shapingindicia can be rendered for viewing by the tester.

Several advantages can be achieved through the operation of the presentinvention. First, by reversing the character order of a unidirectionallanguage string, text can be detected which has not been properlyreversed at display time. Moreover, the bi-directional rendering of theunidirectional text can appear to in the same order as the originalunidirectional text. Second, by mapping the unidirectional text toright-to-left code points, the application under test can handle actualbi-directional code points including the use of justification spacersand shaping. Finally, the use of shape indicators allows the detectionof incorrect shaping and also the use of shape indicators allowsdifferentiation between right-to-left code points and unidirectionalcode points.

The present invention can be applied to pseudo translations as well astest data that can be entered and stored wherever text could normally beentered. A tool to produce pseudo translations for bi-directionallanguages such as Arabic or Hebrew can convert the original textresources that appear in the user interface, and store them as atranslation so that the product under test follows the expected codepaths that would be followed if actual bi-directional languagetranslations were present. Such pseudo translations are not limited toany particular programming language or environment so long as the fonthaving the glyph mappings is available on the device that renders thetranslated text and the font can be set as the font to be used. If thecomputing environment does not allow font selection, the font canreplace the font that is normally used in order to carry out thetesting.

Test data similarly can be generated and stored in the same way that anyother bi-directional text is stored. Since the characters are truebi-directional language code points, test data can be copied and pastedand indeed edited just like any other text because it is in fact suchtext. Rather, the pasting simply displays in a form that is legible inother languages because of the special display font. It can thereforealso be used to test editing and other such operations that are expectedto be performed on bi-directional language text.

Finally, test data can be inserted directly from the keyboard byemploying a keyboard driver that uses the same mapping of unidirectionalcode point to right to left code points as the display font. In otherwords, using the example mapping described herein, the keyboard can beconfigured so that when a specified key has been depressed, the key canproduce the right-to-left character represented by a Unicode code point.The bi-directional character will be stored as a normal bi-directionalcode point. The disadvantage is that the person would have to type inpalindromes or backwards to produce text that makes sense.Alternatively, the keyboard driver can be contrived to work like anInput Method Editor in which one types the entire string and then aspecial keystroke to signal the end of the string at which time theorder reversal and mapping is performed on the entire string and sent tothe application as bi-directional language text.

The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. An implementation of the methodand system of the present invention can be realized in a centralizedfashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion wheredifferent elements are spread across several interconnected computersystems. Any kind of computer system, or other apparatus adapted forcarrying out the methods described herein, is suited to perform thefunctions described herein.

A typical combination of hardware and software could be a generalpurpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loadedand executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out themethods described herein. The present invention can also be embedded ina computer program product, which comprises all the features enablingthe implementation of the methods described herein, and which, whenloaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods.

Computer program or application in the present context means anyexpression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructionsintended to cause a system having an information processing capabilityto perform a particular function either directly or after either or bothof the following a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b)reproduction in a different material form. Significantly, this inventioncan be embodied in other specific forms without departing from thespirit or essential attributes thereof, and accordingly, referenceshould be had to the following claims, rather than to the foregoingspecification, as indicating the scope of the invention.

We claim:
 1. A method for testing the display of bi-directional languagescript prior to translation in an application under test, the methodcomprising the steps of: using unidirectional glyphs with shapingindicators selected from the group consisting of an overbar and anunderscore, to simulate right-to-left characters, the shaping indicatorseach indicating a shaping of a corresponding right-to-left charactercode point; and, displaying the characters each with a corresponding oneof the shaping indicators placed over a corresponding one of thecharacters in a display of a computer; wherein the using step comprisesthe steps of: reversing an ordering of a first set of unidirectionaltext characters in an input string; mapping said unidirectional textcharacters of said input string in said reversed order to correspondingright-to-left code points in a bi-directional language code page, themapping producing a pseudo-translated string; loading a plurality ofunidirectional language glyphs, each of said glyphs corresponding to asame one of said right-to-left character code points as had been used toproduce said pseudo-translated string; and, combining saidpseudo-translated string and said glyphs to simulate right-to-leftcharacter rendering in an application under test such that a resultantoutput is visually similar to said input string.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising the steps of: selecting shaping indicia for saidbi-directional code points; and, coordinating a combination of saidselected shaping indicia with said unidirectional glyphs to produceoutput that allows detection of shaping errors.
 3. The method of claim2, further comprising the step of accounting for justification spacerswhen performing said selecting and coordinating steps.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising the step of selecting unidirectional glyphsfor corresponding unidirectional text characters embedded among saidbi-directional code points.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein saidunidirectional text characters are Latin text characters.
 6. The methodof claim 5, wherein said bi-directional code points are Arabic codepoints.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein said bi-directional codepoints are Hebrew code points.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein saidjustification spacers are Arabic kashidas.